


Cannibal Claims Medic

by jesuisherve



Category: Hannibal (TV), Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)
Genre: Cross Over, cross-over
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-29
Updated: 2013-05-29
Packaged: 2017-12-13 07:43:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/821757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesuisherve/pseuds/jesuisherve
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for a friend, a "what if" crossover of the Hannibal and Repo! universes. Set somewhere in time before the events of the Repo movie. Hannibal is a Repo Man working for GeneCo, Will Graham also works there. A killer is murdering girls in the style of Repo Men, giving Rotti Largo bad press. The killer must be discovered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cannibal Claims Medic

Defaulting on a payment to GeneCo always meant one thing in the end: repossession. Rotti Largo employed several highly trained assassins to be Repo Men, the retrievers of owed organs. It took either intensive training or a natural talent to become a Repo Man. In the case of Nathan Wallace, a man who had achieved infamy, he had talent but no love for the work. Rotti often had to coerce him to do his job with threats. The other Repo Men avoided Wallace as much as they could. He brought bad luck with him. However, there was one Repo Man who did not care for superstitious or about Nathan Wallace’s sob story.

Hannibal Lecter was a man who was good at his job. He had a real taste for it, so to speak. Hannibal had been discovered by Rotti Largo and recruited. His reputation inflated quickly, he soon became on-par with Nathan Wallace for accuracy and reliability. He always completed his assignments efficiently. As a reward for his good service, Rotti Largo turned a blind eye to Hannibal’s darker appetite.

Saying Hannibal Lecter had a taste for his work was a bad pun but also dangerously close to the truth. Once the targeted organ had been repossessed, Hannibal would often take a prize for himself: something to use for a meal. He supposed it was his taste for cannibalism that caught GeneCo’s eye. Hannibal was not 100% sure how he was discovered, he usually covered his tracks well, but nothing had been done to impede him so he did not take issue with his employer’s spying policy.

Eating human flesh had been part of Hannibal’s life for years. Why he did it was complex but unimportant. What was important was how outside circumstances influenced his behaviour. Before the rise of GeneCo, there had been a devastating epidemic of organ failures. Hannibal had indeed been active during this time, but the spread of disease put a hold on his actions.

-  
 _  
The scalpel cut through the man’s flesh easily. It glided like the blade of a skate on ice. Hannibal worked quickly; being caught by authorities was a reality. Tonight, he was looking to take the heart. Something made him pause. He sniffed deeply. There was something wrong. The meat was tainted. Hannibal leaned closer and smelled again. Infection. This man was riddled with sickness. It was a wonder that he had been alive when Hannibal fell upon him._

_Disgust twisted Hannibal’s mouth. He gathered his tools, wiping them clean on the man’s shirt. He disposed of the body easily, burying it in a graveyard. It was rare for people to think of looking there for missing persons. Hannibal filed the smell into his memory. He would have to be more careful to check for infected meat._

_It was not long after discovering sickness in the nameless man that newspapers started to report on mass organ failures around the world. Hannibal noticed a marked change in the flow of the city. It was like the entire population had a collective flu. His keen nose picked up the smell of sickness from many people. Hannibal was able to pin-point who was sick. Even those who seemed well had traces of disease around them. As irritating as it was, Hannibal had to stop his nocturnal forays. The joy of cooking was dialed down by fear of falling ill. Hannibal was healthy, he had never been truly sick a day in his life, and he did not intend to break that record because he could not control his cravings._

_Still, knowing about the diseases did not stop Hannibal’s mouth from watering when he passed certain people in the street, imagining the delicacies he could make._

_When GeneCo opened its doors to the public, Hannibal’s stomach began rumbling for human meat again. Soon the diseased organs would be off the market. When the organ repossession law was passed, Hannibal laughed out loud. It was if the city was begging for him to return to his old habits. With people disappearing left and right, victims of circumstance and Repo Men, Hannibal was practically free to kill who he wanted._

_People marked for repossession were the easiest to harvest. Sometimes Hannibal could clue in on who had missed payments and get to them before a Repo Man did. These people where the easiest to kill because if their bodies were found, the city paid to have them cleaned up. It was remarkable. Even if Hannibal chose a victim who was not scheduled to repossession, dumping the body in a mass grave did the trick. No one questioned why the person was dead if it looked clean and professional. Hannibal had medical training; his work looked identical to that of a Repo Man._

_The difference between Hannibal and a Repo Man was GeneCo received no profit from Hannibal’s killings. In the end, that’s what marked him for investigation. Too many organs that were meant to be returned and redistributed were going missing. Rotti Largo was livid. One or two misplaced organs were to be expected: sometimes they were damaged during the repossession or in-transit. It could not be helped. But the amount of organs that were going missing was inexplicable. Not to mention the countless angry people who were complaining to police about relatives who were on time with their payments going missing or being killed._

_Months of work went into finding the mysterious organ harvester. Eventually Rotti’s team of spies wised up. They put out an unwitting decoy: a regular citizen who was scheduled for repossession. None of the Repo Men were assigned to the man, they simply shadowed him for long enough that Hannibal clued in. He cornered the man in what he thought was a deserted alley and took his liver. With the organ still in his hands and blood spatters on his face, he could not deny that he was the one taking organs illegally. Rotti’s men took him in, not to the police but directly to the founder of GeneCo._

_Rotti saw immediately that Hannibal was too valuable to simply throw away. He saw the man’s poise; he knew the man’s work was precise. With a little bit of training he could be a top Repo Man._

_“What were you taking the organs for?” Rotti asked at one point during their conversation. He assumed it was for cheap surgeries, Hannibal could be doing organ transplants for a steep one-time fee, his customers being those who were afraid of GeneCo’s financing plans._

_The man tilted his head minutely and smiled. It was a cold smile. “Have you ever had_ foie gras, _Mr. Largo?”_

_“I have,” Rotti said, although he didn’t mention that liver was not his favourite._

_“I find that men aged forty to fifty with a history of military service have the best livers for this dish, especially if they have ‘let themselves go’.”_

_Rotti did not need more clarification. If anything, this made Hannibal Lecter an even better candidate for the repossession program. He was obviously a man without morals or pity. “If I pretend I didn’t hear that,” Rotti offered, “and let you continue to do what you do, would you consider coming to work for me?”_

_Hannibal raised an eyebrow. “You say ‘consider’ like I have a choice.”_

_The cannibal caught on quickly. Of course Rotti would exercise leverage if he needed to. Hannibal’s contract was drawn up on the spot. The terms of his employment included a handsome salary. Not written on the legal document but confirmed in verbal agreement was the guarantee that he could have his pick of any organs from victims, as long as it was not the one being repossessed._

_Being paid to eat well. It was what dreams were made of._

-

With Hannibal under observation from GeneCo, reports of a new organ thief were surprising. It had been awhile since anyone had stolen a significant number of organs. Rotti was nonetheless infuriated again. This time, the perpetrator was not nearly as sly. He was targeting the same type of victim over and over. Slim, pale teenage girls with a very specific shade of hair colour. Each murder and subsequent organ theft looked like the work of a Repo Man. The police began breathing down GeneCo’s neck at these unauthorised repossessions. Rotti assured the public that his company was not responsible for any of it and it was indeed the work of a murderer.

A GeneCo employee named Will Graham was given the task of helping the specialised police unit find the culprit. Hannibal was given the assignment to watch Graham and help consult. While not enthusiastic about the assignment, Hannibal knew he was the best one for the job. Wallace was too unstable and the other Repo Men were not nearly as bright. Will Graham would give the impression that GeneCo was honest through and through while cooperating with law enforcement. Rotti wanted to appear compliant with the police while not letting them get too close to his own organisation. GeneCo was not responsible for ALL crime in the city, but Rotti had his fingers in a few pies that could get him in trouble. Graham was undoubtedly in the dark about GeneCo’s shadier side and Hannibal would be there to steer the young man, and the police, away from the illegalities of his employer.

The police wanted an expert to consult. There was a possibility of the murderer being a GeneCo employee, a Repo Man or otherwise. Having Will and Hannibal assist on the case could give them insight from a perspective they would not normally have. Not that the chief of police felt he could refuse Rotti Largo’s help, anyway. A lot of funding, for the police force and his personal bank account, came from the Largo family.

Upon introduction to Will Graham and the police force, Hannibal assessed them and determined right away that they were essentially useless. Graham was marginally more interesting; he had sharp eyes and spoke in a way that said he was intelligent. He would probably be the most useful to the investigation.

Hannibal wanted to capture this killer more than anyone. As long as murders were being committed rampantly, he had to hold off on his regular work. Not doing repossessions meant he had to stop harvesting organs for consumption. In the long run it was not a big deal but it was an irritation. Hannibal was not the sort of man to deny himself. He had waited out the organ failure epidemic, if this amateur killer, this shy boy, was the reason he couldn’t do as he pleased, then he would use everything at his disposal to take him out.

-

Will Graham worked for GeneCo reluctantly. He was being groomed to be a Repo Man. The last thing he wanted was to be a legal assassin, but Rotti Largo had roped him in. Will was unbalanced. There was something wrong, but no one could figure it out, or they would just not try. Doctors had told him nothing useful, nothing he could do to treat it. While the treatment of physical ailments, like organ failure, had seen exponential scientific breakthroughs, maladies of the mind were still very hard to manage.

No one would hire Will. He couldn’t get a job anywhere. He was too off-and-on to even finish his college degree. Rotti Largo was there to give him security. If he worked for GeneCo he could afford to pay his bills, buy food, take care of his pet dogs... anything he needed he could get, including useless visits to doctors who seemed to go mute while he was there. Will felt in the back of his head that Rotti was keeping them quiet to keep him dependent on the company but had no proof.

Being assigned to help catch the killer was a godsend for Will. He had always wanted to be a detective despite never finishing school and being unable to pass their psychiatric evaluations. But being assigned a watchdog, the Repo Man Lecter, was not how Will wanted to work. He knew Rotti was using the other man to keep an eye on things. With Lecter there, the Largo patriarch would have an inside view of the investigation. Almost nothing escaped Rotti Largo. Will knew that he and Lecter were two more pawns in his network of schemes.

Another girl was killed two nights after Lecter and Graham met the police force they would be working with. Will and Hannibal came out to the crime scene, driven by a young police officer. They both examined the body.

“Some medical experience,” Will said shortly, “but not much.” The girl had been cut open and her stomach and kidneys taken, but it was not as clean as Repo Men usually did. Hannibal confirmed this. Whoever this shy boy was, he had not completed his training. The cut lines were shoddy; the organs which weren’t harvested were damaged. Blood was everywhere. 

The girl had been butchered in a messy frenzy. Repo Men, and other GeneCo employees for that matter, were always trained to be calm. Panic and other strong emotions merely got in the way of finishing the assignment. Even a GENtern could have cut the poor girl open better than the killer had.

-

By the end of a week of investigation, both Will and Hannibal were tired of working with the police. There was so much in-fighting and office politics that nothing was really getting done. Another girl was killed during this time. The police were swamped. Will and Hannibal spent a lot of time doing nothing.

So, when Hannibal suggested they strike out on their own, Will accepted out of pure boredom. 

Hannibal knew another side of the city that Will, and the police, didn’t. He could move through the streets with such ease. He knew short cuts and alley ways, underground tunnels and most of all, he knew people. Hannibal had an uncanny sense of people. Will was good at reading people but not nearly as well as the other man. Where Will had incredible empathy and could assume points of view, Hannibal did all of that subconsciously and coldly. Will always let his emotions get wrapped up in his work, but Repo Man Hannibal Lecter didn’t.

“We need to look for more girls like the ones that were killed,” Will said as they walked down a nearly empty street together.

“We’ve already found one,” Hannibal said with a touch of something like disdain in his voice. “We’ve been following her for the last fifteen minutes.”

Will clenched his jaw and cursed silently. He should have noticed that Hannibal was moving with an agenda but he hadn’t. He’d been thinking too much about other things, like facts from the case files, to properly observe the few people around them. Also, the Repo Man just moved so smoothly and naturally, Will hadn’t even realized that he had adjusted his step to keep up. He looked ahead and saw what Hannibal was focused on. A girl with long, dark hair was in front of them. She was about the same height and build as the girls who had been killed.

“She probably won’t get targeted tonight,” Will said, “What are the odds of that happening?”

“That is not the point,” Hannibal said crisply, “we start with her, get surveillance. She fits the profile; she is in the same area as the majority of the other girls. She is more than likely to be a target eventually.”

Will stopped talking for the rest of the night.

-

“The girl’s father is the killer,” Hannibal said conversationally a few days later. He and Will were having breakfast at a small coffee shop which was situated near the girl’s house. They were waiting for the house to be empty to break in and gather evidence if there was any.

“Are you sure?” Will asked, sipping his coffee.

Hannibal tapped the table with his index finger. “Her father is Garrett Jacob Hobbs, a GeneCo employee. He is in training to be a surGEN but he does not have enough skill. He is decent with a knife but impatient to learn technique.”

Will put his coffee down and ran his hands through his hair. “How do you know that?”

“I pulled his file,” Hannibal said smugly. “Rotti gave me access. You could have asked him.”

“I don’t like asking him for things,” Will snapped. His head was starting to hurt. Besides the work he had been doing with Hannibal, Will was spending time with the police too. He was overtired and burning out. He wanted this assignment to be done. He was spending too much time with Hannibal. He was learning about repossessions. He knew being a Repo Man was a job he would excel at, that’s why Rotti wanted it, and it scared him. 

They were both talented. The only difference between him and Hannibal Lecter was a taste for the work.

-

The girl had left for school; Garrett Jacob Hobbs had left as well, presumably for work. Will jimmied the lock on the front door and let them in. The house was mundane upon first glance. Front entrance, sitting room off to the left, kitchen straight forward. Two flights of stairs on the right hand side: one going up to what showed to be bedrooms and a bathroom and the other leading to a basement. 

They checked the basement first. There was a laundry room and a storage room. Everything was so average.

“Wait look at this,” Will called. There was a thin line along the back wall in the storage room. It was camouflaged by the wallpaper, the pattern made the line hard to see. It ran up and over and back down.

“A hidden door,” Hannibal mused.

Will slid his fingers along the line. Eventually he found a place in the wall that indented. This way he managed to pull the door open. It swung open with little noise. Behind the door, motion sensor lights flickered to life.

The room was stainless steel and linoleum floors. Everything was easy to clean. There was a deep freeze on the left hand side of the room, a stainless steel work table in the middle and countertops running along the walls. Cupboards ran parallel to the countertops for storage. There was a small sink embedded in one of the counters. The two men checked the deep freeze first.

Packed neatly in ice was a body wrapped in clear cellophane. Will had to look away and take a few seconds to collect himself. Hannibal leaned right over the freezer and pawed through the ice. Some of the missing organs were there, but not all.

“Maybe he threw them out,” Will suggested weakly.

“Doubtful,” Hannibal said, glancing at the other man. He was pale. “If he’s keeping them like this, it is more likely that he is using them.”

“For what?” Will asked.

“Supper,” came a new voice.

They both turned, even Hannibal was taken by surprise. It was Garrett Jacob Hobbs. He had snuck up on them. That took some skill. 

“What are you doing in my house?” Hobbs asked. His eyes were small and shifty. He held a large knife in his hand. A kitchen one, it wasn’t medical at all. Either way, it was still sharp and would hurt a lot. Hannibal drew his repossession knife. Will had no weapon but he didn’t want to risk turning his back on Hobbs to go looking for something.

Hobbs lunged at Hannibal first, lashing out with the knife. His reach was elongated by the blade of the knife. Hannibal tried to dodge but Will moved at the same time. Hannibal bumped into him and the tip of Hobb’s knife sliced across the back of his hand. Hannibal hissed but didn’t drop his knife. He swung his empty fist and clipped Hobbs in the side of the head.

Hobbs stumbled but didn’t drop his knife either. Hannibal booted Will out of the way, he was being useless, and lowered himself into a wide-legged stance. It gave him better balance and he would be much harder to knock over.

-

Will watched the two men fighting with wide eyes. He didn’t want to be useless, which he knew Hannibal was thinking the moment he got kicked out of the way, but he didn’t know exactly what to do. Did he risk jumping in and getting cut up by Hobbs or worse, accidentally cut by Hannibal? It was obvious which of them had better control over the blade. Will edged towards the door. Maybe he could get behind Hobbs and restrain him from behind. 

-

Hobbs kept swiveling his head in between Will and Hannibal. He had to keep an eye on both of them. Just because one of them wasn’t armed, didn’t mean they weren’t both dangerous. Hobbs knew who Hannibal Lecter was. While the identities of the Repo Men were supposed to remain unknown, some secrets leaked down the ranks.

-

Hannibal miscalculated and Hobbs landed a lucky shot. He stabbed Hannibal in the leg, swiftly pulling the knife out to strike again. Hannibal growled deep in his throat at the wound. It hadn’t gone that deep. How was this man the one who had slaughtered all of those girls? His form was terrible; he wielded the kitchen knife clumsily. Hannibal had gotten a few good jabs in himself: Hobbs’ left arm was incapacitated and he was bleeding heavily from wounds on his neck and forehead.

The Repo Man got an idea. He could see Will, almost behind Hobbs. The younger man was starting to panic, adrenaline was pumping. Hannibal made as if to lunge to the left, Hobbs dodged and went right. Midway through his movement, Lecter changed his course and threw himself to the right, body checking Hobbs.

The killer crashed into one of the countertops. He fell backwards at Will’s feet. “Finish it!” Hannibal shouted. He tossed his knife to Will.

The slim weapon sailed through the air. The Repo Man had timed the throw perfectly. Will winced and reflexively put out his hand. He caught it by the handle. On the floor, Hobbs was scrambling for the kitchen knife he had dropped. Will jumped and pinned him flat to the ground. Hobbs struggled, kicking and bucking to try and knock him off.

Panic took over Will’s brain. Everything was on autopilot. He grabbed Hobbs’ forehead and brought Hannibal’s knife across his throat in a savage slashing motion. Hobbs screamed and it came out bubbly and thick. Blood drenched the floor. It got on Will’s hands. He clambered to his feet and stepped away from the bleeding man on the ground. His chest was heaving and he could feel the onset of hyperventilation.

Hannibal nudged Will out of the way, took his knife back and limped over to where Hobbs was writhing on the floor. He put his foot on back of the killer’s head and pushed it down. Blood poured out in sickening gushes. “If the head tilts back it can seal off the neck wound,” Hannibal stated, as calmly as one would tell a child to put a bandage on a scraped knee. “If I tilt the head forward, it will make him bleed out.”

Will turned and puked into the sink.

-

“What about his daughter?”

Hannibal looked at Will quizzically. They had just called the police and were sitting in the living room of the house, waiting. Hannibal had lit a cigar and was smoking it calmly when Will posed his hesitant question. 

“What about the daughter?”

Will waved his hand. “They obviously live alone. No mother. What will happen to his daughter?”

The Repo Man shrugged. He studied Will through a cloud of cigar smoke. He was remarkably well-collected for his first kill. As to the daughter, Hannibal didn’t know. He never concerned himself with what happened to the families of his victims, or even if they had them. But Will’s question made him curious. Hobbs had been killing girls who looked like his daughter. Why? They might never know.

Sirens sounded in the distance and soon grew closer. Hannibal clamped the cigar between his teeth and stood laboriously. He was going to need some attention for his leg.  
-  
There was enough evidence in the house to convict Garrett Jacob Hobbs as the killer. The police were relieved that the case had been solved quickly. The chief of police decided to ‘forget’ that Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter were not formally deputized and really had no business being in that house. It was better for everyone, the public and the chief, if Rotti’s men walked away from this relatively unscathed.

Hobbs’ daughter was named Abigail.

When asked, Rotti fast-tracked Hannibal’s request to adopt her with no questions. He didn’t want to know why his second best Repo Man was adopting a girl, especially when his best Repo Man was hiding a girl and pretending she didn’t exist.

“I’m going to live with you?” Abigail asked nervously when Hannibal went to pick her up from the police station. She had been kept there for questioning.

“It will be best for you,” Hannibal told her softly, “you have no next of kin, no income. If you live with me, I can provide for you and help you.”

Abigail didn’t reply. She just got into his car and looked out the window as they drove.

-

_Abigail adjusted to living with Hannibal Lecter. Will was an ever-present figure in her life. The young man felt responsible for turning her into an orphan and wanted to give her a better life. As well, his mind was continuing to slip away from him. Killing Garrett Jacob Hobbs sent him into a depression. If it was so easy to kill one man, why didn’t he succumb to Rotti’s wishes and become a Repo Man? He could succeed in the business. Will struggled with himself internally over the concept. He had killed one man, he could kill more. Hannibal could train and support him. If he became a Repo Man he could help protect Abigail. She would never want for anything if she was being raised by him and Hannibal. He had killed one man, he could kill more. He could kill more, couldn’t he?_

_Hannibal gently coaxed Abigail’s story from her over time. She proved to have a harder edge in her than he had originally thought. Garrett Jacob Hobbs was insane. He killed girls like her and told her he did it so that he wouldn’t have to kill her. She never knew the exact reason why her father believed this, but that was the gist of it. Hannibal found it fascinating. He found Abigail fascinating. She told him that she had helped her father once or twice by luring the victims to secluded areas. She also told him that Hobbs had made meals from the butchered girls._

_“I ate them,” she said one night, tears streaming down her face, “I ate them because I was afraid he would kill me.”_

_Hannibal gathered her up in his arms and held her close. She cried into his chest, small shoulders shaking. “The worst part is,” she sobbed, “they tasted good!”_

_That’s how Hannibal knew he had hooks in Abigail’s soul. She trusted him enough to admit to liking the meals her dead father had cooked. With some patience, she would trust him enough to try meals from her new father, all made with very similar ingredients._


End file.
